Teenie Harris at the Carnegie Museum of Art
Via Flickr:
This evening, my mother and I took a trip to the Carnegie Museum of Art (free admission on Thursdays) to see the Teenie Harris exhibit. Teenie Harris was an African American photographer in the Pittsburgh area, mostly active from the 1930s to the 1970s. Photographing for clients, newspapers, and for his own enjoyment, he amassed a collection of 80,000 photos showcasing the lifestyle of African Americans in Pittsburgh. This exhibit showcased nearly 1,000 of the photos he took throughout the years.
365 Project
So my life’s been pretty much everywhere recently. I graduated from Penn State last May. I took a trip to Alaska with my friends, and then spent the summer in Calgary with Kat. In September, I started into the PhD program in medical physics at the University of Chicago. After a few months, I had to leave the program due to some personal issues.
But things are looking up! Kat just got a job, and I applied to some new medical physics programs in Canada. We also just got an apartment up in Calgary.
But to expedite things, I’m going to jump right into my version of the 365 project. The 365 project involves taking a picture every day. Different variations exist, but for mine, I have to be in the picture each day–at least some part of me. I realize I’m a few years and a month later for this, but I figure better late than never. Now I can’t promise I’ll upload my picture each day, but I will take the photo each day, and upload at least once a week (assuming I can get internet sometime that week).
I’m into day 4 so far, so I’ll go ahead and post everything I’ve got so far! Enjoy!
I've been cooking a lot of bread recently, partly because it's so much cheaper than buying it at the store, and partly because having warm bread come fresh out of the oven is a sensory delight. I most make loaves from the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, but I've found that my breads often come out a little dense and chewy. For this loaf, I altered the recipe a little by allowing longer rise times, and then treating it with an egg wash before baking. The result was exactly what I was looking for -- a bread that was fluffy on the inside, but crunchy and tasty on the outside.
If I don't eat often enough, my body gets a little out of whack, and I have to munch on something to quickly get myself back in the right mind. Here I'm snacking on a block of peanut butter fudge that I got for Christmas. Not the healthiest treat, but enough to hold me off for the hour or so until dinner.
Today, I ate my first egg in three months. Though I used to eat eggs regularly, often daily, three months ago I started getting sudden stomach pains everytime I would eat one. I felt as though someone was stabbing me and twisting the knife in circles in some sort of sick, egg-filled torture. So, naturally, I stopped. I decided to retry them today, and to my delight, there was no pain. Welcome back, eggs!
Prior to university, I played piano on a regular basis, first on a Lester from the 1950s. Right before I went off to Penn State, I got spoiled with a baby grand Kawai, but had to leave it behind for obvious reasons. Since then, my playing has become very sporadic, playing here and there on whatever piano I could scrounge up. Recently, I got hold of my dad's old Roland EP-50, a 76-key keyboard with weighted keys. Despite it being from 1985, the action on the piano is great, but the sound is horrendous. There are only 3 piano sounds available, and all sound like a dying organ mixed with a robotic banjo. To fix this, I connected the keyboard by midi-to-USB to my laptop and ran it through Cakewalk Sonar X1 software to produce perfect piano sound. This, combined with my recently digitized sheet music collection brings back the piano playing I've missed.
Together Without Limits
A photo I took from on shift at THON today.
Expect more photos of THON (as well as a few shots from Chicago) in weeks to come, after exams and traveling like crazy are done.
PSIDE Winter Dance Show
Back in early December, I had the pleasure of being the photographer for a university dance group called PSIDE. PSIDE is short for “Penn State International Dance Ensemble.” As the name suggests, the group of 30+ members practices and performs dances from around the world, including Irish, Greek, Jazz, and Bhangra.
The two shows that I photographed took place in Penn State’s HUB as part of Late Night Penn State, and each of the two shows lasted about an hour. Below are few of my favorites from the show.
Coupe Decale
Salsa
Belly Dance
Chinese Long Silk Fan
Jazz Solo Dance
Bollywood Dance
Cha-Cha
Bhangra
Egg Stuffed Red Pepper
Trying to decide what to make for dinner, I asked one of my roommates for suggestions. After hearing what ingredients I had to work with, he suggested jokingly “Cook an egg in a pepper.” And I did.
Despite its start as a joke, this was one of the best meals I’ve had in a while. It was very flavorful and had a wide variety of flavors.
Recipe:
1. Beat two eggs with butter and shredded cheddar. Toss that with 2 slices of torn multigrain bread (crust removed), spinach, and onion. Add salt, pepper, and chipotle powder to taste.
2. Add this mixture into a cleaned, deribbed red bell pepper. Replace cap.
3. Cook in a (preheated) oven at 350 until pepper is tender and egg is cooked through, about 45 minutes. (It might help to place the pepper in a small, oven-proof bowl to help keep it upright while cooking.)
Fluctuations
Steve has an electronic scale in the bathroom. Because I like seeing the numbers pop up (technology still fascinates me), I weigh myself fairly frequently.
That being said, I weighed myself twice today. The first time was just after I had run, before eating dinner. The second time was right after playing Ultimate Frisbee for 1.5 hours (but also after 3 slices of pizza for dinner). And the difference was 7 pounds. Doesn’t it seem a bit crazy that I should fluctuate that much within a few hours?
Also, I took my pulse the other day, and it was 48 resting. I’ve never had a pulse that low, even when I trained every day for cross country in high school.
My body is weird.
[Photo courtesy of foshydog]
Day 11: Surf and Turf
10 June, 2010
Wow, I am completely exhausted. The trip is almost over (I’m sitting in the airport about to board the plane to Wellington), but I still have a massive cram session for my biology exam remaining. As of 4:30pm tomorrow, though, I’m done until my physics exam two weeks later.
We got up this morning and basically scrambled all day. By 8am, we were out of our camping spot and driving towards Greymouth. While it was slightly out of our way, we needed to check the condition of Arthur’s Pass (Route 73). This road passes through the mountains and is routinely closed due to snow. Luckily, there was no problem (“but make sure to take it slow, and you remember that you could get turned around if the forecast changes,”) and we headed out.
The drive was incredibly beautiful. We started out with some rain, but it died out after a while and gave way to blue skies. Unfortunately, we were a bit pressed for time, so we didn’t get to stop much. (I only ended up taking one or two pictures, despite the spectacular scenery.)
Despite the fact that Arthur's Pass was completely gorgeous, I only got one decent photo out of the drive. We were a bit rushed trying to get to Christchurch in time to drop off our van and didn't get a chance to stop for pictures.
We actually got pretty lucky making it back to Christchurch on time. Our van was due back at 2pm (though I got it extended to 3pm). We left at 8am, and it was set to take 4 hours…in perfect conditions and if you knew the road. On top of that, we still had to pack everything away and find out how to get to the drop-off depot. We did all this, plus cooking and eating lunch, in the parking lot of a restaurant just outside of Christchurch.
We ended up with a little extra time and tried stopping by the airport to see if we could check our bags early so we didn’t have to carry them around Christchurch all afternoon. Unfortunately, after wandering aimlessly and dealing with some annoyingly long lines, we weren’t allowed.
When we dropped the van off, we were a bit nervous about the damage report. We didn’t get into an accident or anything, but we did get a chip in the windshield. We were driving down a main road (Route 6) which had some “grit” (cinders—those little rocks to prevent you from sliding on ice). A campervan passing on the other side was going a little too fast, and we ended up with a sizable chink in our windshield. Luckily, it was near another, less prominent chip, and the guy checking damage mistook one for the other. In other words, despite the chip and the insurance that didn’t cover the windshield, we didn’t pay a penny, and the crewman initialed off an “All ok!”
After dropping the van off, we took a free shuttle to Cathedral Square, the town center of Christchurch. We found a Base Backpackers that let us store our bags, and we explored the city. Katrina got a ring, a small, sterling silver band with a shiny shell in the center, at the Cathedral Square markets.
A ring that Kat got down in Christchurch. The main setting is a shiny, multicolored seashell.
We also took a trip to the Christchurch Art Gallery, looking at the Observation/Action/Reflection collection. The main piece in this collection was an attachment of two long, counter-rotating rods. As they rotated, live wires on the ends of the rods pulled across a copper strip on the wall and created a mini Tesla arc.
The art gallery in Christchurch. It's one of the most modern I've seen.
We walked around the city a bit more, but we were losing sun, and it was getting cold. I was feeling pretty sick from a combination of head congestion and (what I just realized) was pretty strong dehydration. I grabbed a 250mL bottle of water and chugged it. This held me over for a little while, but what I really needed was some food.
We ended up at The Tap Room on Oxford Terrace. I chugged some more water, and we ordered seafood chowder as a starter. This was not your typical US chowder. Besides being nearly enough for the two of us as a meal, it was filled with huge chunks of fish, scallops, and prawns. It even had two whole, shell-on mussels floating on top. Delicious!
Our appetizer at The Tap Room in Christchurch. It was one of the heartiest seafood chowders I've ever eaten. It was corn and potato based and had huge chunks of seafood in it. Everything from fish and squid to scallops and even full mussels on top.
For dinner, they were having an early bird special: 1/2 off their Stonegrill meals. Your meal comes out on a 400° C stone, almost fully raw. You can cook the meat just how you like, along with a variety of sauces. I got the Surf and Turf: a 200g steak, 2 prawns, and 2 scallops. Kat ended up with the Ocean Fare: a lobster tail, 2 prawns, 2 scallops, and 2 mussels. For the $14 NZD ($10 USD) that they each cost, it would have been a steal just for the raw meat!
Although stuffed and completely satisfied, the food was too delicious to pass up dessert. We finished with a white chocolate raspberry tartlet with an almond crust and a scoop of plum ice cream, one of the tastiest desserts I’ve had in a while.
And that brings me here to the end of our trip. By this point, I’ve already boarded the flight, and we actually just started our decent into Wellington.
We spent 15 minutes trying to take this picture of ourselves at Mojo in the airport. We ended up with 30+ photos and only got a few to turn out.
This trip, I can easily say, was (and probably will be for a long time) the most amazing trip I’ve ever taken. When else can I say that I’ve gone skydiving, climbed a glacier, and cruised through one of the most beautiful National Parks in the world? And all of this, even the driving, was through the most amazing scenery I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to find a place where you can go from a coastal dream to sheep farms to snow-capped mountains, glaciers, and more in the span of one day’s drive. (Not to mention my amazing companion through this whole thing.)
Still, I can say I’m a little glad to be getting back. I’m starting to get sick; I think that’s about all my body can take of sleeping in a cold, confined, and slightly damp van. (Don’t get me wrong—our van was wonderfully comfortable in itself. But New Zealand nights can get pretty chilly this time of year.)
My last word of advice: take the trip to New Zealand, especially the South Island, at some point in your life. I know I’ve said this a thousand times, but I have to say it again. Out of all the people I talk to, nearly all of them, be they from North America, Brazil, Europe, or Asia, have said that New Zealand is, by far, the most beautiful place they’ve ever seen. If you can make the trip, you’ll be glad you did. Who knows, you just may never want to head back home.
-Brandon M. Koger
See the full set on Flickr! (Photos will be uploaded as I go through each day.)
Day 10: Weeeeeeeeeee!
09 June, 2010
And today held yet another amazing adventure: skydiving.
Katrina and I had a time set to skydive at 11:15am. We ate a quick breakfast in our van and grabbed coffee at a little café before leaving.
The original plan was to skydive in Queenstown. It’s the adventure capital of New Zealand, and most people will either dive there or in Taupo on the North Island. Just as I was about to book in Queenstown, though, I randomly stumbled across Skydive NZ, a skydiving company based out of Fox Glacier. Besides allowing you to skydive over the most beautiful scenery in the country (including Mount Cook and the glaciers), they let you take your own camera on the dive with you. Sadly, they don’t allow DSLRs, but I took my little Flip video camera and was able to videotape everything after our chute opened up.
We pulled up to the hanger and checked in. Within five minutes, we were given a very quick briefing and shoved on a plane. The plan was tiny, the same size as the one I used to skydive near State College—just big enough to hold a pilot and four passengers seated on the floor.
We were allowed to take our camera up on the plane with us before our skydive. Of course, I wasn't allowed to take my DSLR on the dive with me, but I would have been able to take a point and shoot if I had one. (I ended up taking my small videocamera on the dive with me, which was still great.)
The ride up was beautiful, circling around the Fox Glacier valley, Mount Cook, and the other mountains in the area. You could also see the coast of the Tasman Sea. Needless to say, I took quite a few pictures through the window of the airplane.
A panorama I took using three shots out the window of our skydiving plane.
The summit of Mount Cook, as viewed from our plane.
As we were about to hit 12,000 feet, I put my camera away and got ready to jump. The instant the altimeter read 12,000, the door swung open, and Kat and her instructor disappeared out into the perfectly blue sky. My instructor helped me towards the door. My head went back against his shoulder, my legs back in the “banana shape.” As he sat on the edge of the plane with his legs dangling out, my entire body was suspended in the air, held up only by my attachment to him. He swung forward, and we fell out into the open air.
A few of the thoughts that ran through my head during the 45-second freefall: “Wow, this is cool. I should scream. Wow, it’s cold. Wonder if I should have worn boots; the air is going right through my running shoes. Oh, my mouth is open. What if I swallow a bug? I remember seeing people skydiving once with their mouth opened. They looked silly. Oh, a chute below. Is that Kat? Of course it is, who else is parachuting from this exact spot at this exact moment. She’s far down. Hmm, wonder when he’s going to pull the chute?”
And he did pull the chute. I was yanked upwards and felt my body become weightless for a second before continuing my descent, this time much slower than before. My instructor pulled my goggles off, and I took out my video camera to film the rest. (As of the time of writing this, I have no idea if my video is any good, as I haven’t watched it yet. I tried to get the scenery, as well as a few shots of my face. I also watched Kat land below, and myself skim across the grass as I landed.)
It was quite a fantastic experience, but I think the initial shock of it is gone since I did it the first time in State College. Comparing the two, I think I honestly liked State College (technically Reedsville, PA) better. While this had amazing scenery, the staff at skydive NZ was a bit cold. Kat said her instructor was friendly, but mine barely talked. I felt like I was rushed through, like they were just trying to turn a profit and didn’t care if you enjoyed the experience or not. They even made a snide remark when we told them that we didn’t want to order pictures or videos. (“I thought the recession was over? Guess not!”) (And don’t get me wrong, the jump itself was still utterly amazing, but the staff and mood in Reedsville were much more inviting, making for a more enjoyable experience overall.)
Within 45 minutes, we were back in our car. We took some photos of the town (which we hadn’t done in the previous two days of being here).
This is in the center of town in Fox Glacier. The two glaciers are to either side, and the picturesque Lake Matheson cuts right down the middle.
We also took the 5-minute trip to Lake Matheson, right outside of town. Wow, totally worth it. It’s “one of New Zealand’s most famous lakes,” and for a good reason. It is perfectly still, and it acts like a mirror, giving a brilliant reflection of Mount Cook and some of the surrounding mountains.
And only dingy fence I found heading towards Lake Matheson. Kat continued towards the lake, but I stayed here for a few minutes to take pictures, sprinting (and getting completely out of breath) to catch back up to her.
Lake Matheson, one of the most photographed lakes in New Zealand. You can see Mount Cook and some of its neighboring mountains in the distance, but unfortunately they were mostly covered under clouds for this photo.
After that, we took a quick trip to Fox’s neighbor, Franz Joseph. This time it wasn’t to see the glacier, but the boundary of two tectonic plates: the Indo-Australian and the Pacific. One point of the fault line lies right under a gas station: this seems recipe for disaster. Kat also spotted the boundary in the Franz Joseph Glacier Valley: a giant crack in the wall with different types of rock on each side. (Kat is a geologist, so she was pretty much in heaven in all of New Zealand, but especially here.)
This petrol station lies right on the fault line between the Pacific and the Indo-Australian tectonic plates. Seems a little dangerous if the plates decided to make a decent sized move. (Taken by Kat)
From there we took the drive to Greymouth for the night. We stopped at a few places along the way to take pictures, but nothing worth mentioning by name. Although, at one of the stops, Kat accidentally touched an electric fence. Needless to say, her arm is not feeling the greatest right now.
A reflection of myself in Lake Mapourika. We stopped here just after leaving Franz Joseph to grab a bite to eat.
We were trying to find a decent place to see the sunset, but were so landlocked that we couldn't find anywhere. It seemed that anywhere that would be decent for a photo was private and fenced off. (This is also the place where Kat touched the electric fence.)
Lake Ianthe. We stopped here for a few moments to take photos on our way back up. I think we interrupted something going on in a car by the lake.
There really is nothing interesting in Greymouth, and we didn’t even bother going into town. We’re just camped in a picnic area outside of town, set to wake up and finish the drive to Christchurch tomorrow morning. We hope to take Arthur’s Pass, though it’s possible that it could be closed due to snow, and we’d have to readjust our schedule. Our car needs to be back by 2pm either way.
Crazy how fast this trip has gone: 24 hours left until I’m back in Wellington.
See the full set on Flickr! (Photos will be uploaded as I go through each day.)
Day 9: Ice Cold
08 June, 2010
Add another to the list of the most awesome things that I’ve done on this trip.
We went glacier hiking on Fox Glacier today. The weather was absolutely sublime; the rain from last night completely disappeared, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Unfortunately, the glacier is almost completely in shadow this time of year, and we only go to spend a tiny bit of time enjoying that sun.
Up at the highest point on the glacier. More on this later.
We chose to use a group called Fox Guides, doing the full-day Nimble Fox glacier hike. This 8-hour hike spent about 2 hours heading up to the ice, 4-5 hours on the ice, and an hour getting back. They also offered half-day hikes, short walks, and even heli-tours of the glaciers. I would highly recommend this hike, especially over the half-day one. For only $50 extra (for a totally cost of $150/person), you get an extra 3-4 hours on the ice and, you get to see some really cool features. It also allows you to actually do some semi-adventurous stuff, as compared to the very tame half-day.
The building for Fox Guides, the guiding company that took us on our hike of Fox Glacier.
(Also, we chose to hike Fox Glacier instead of Franz Joseph Glacier for a few reasons. First, it’s slightly bigger. But most importantly, it’s less touristy. Our group had a total of six people, as compared to the 15 of Franz. Also, we were the only full-day group, as compared to three groups (each of 15 people) at a time on Franz this time of year. Our instructor also said that Franz has a set tour path—we got to make our own track depending on what the instructor thought was cool that day, especially important since the glacial features change daily.)
We started out in town, getting suited up. I was the only one in our group whose boots were “probably alright,” and didn’t have to use a rental pair. We got crampons, those little spikes that attach to your shoes to help you dig into the ice. From there, it was a quick 10-minute drive to the glacier, and we were on our way.
At the start of our hike, we had a short, 1km walk to the “terminal face,” or front, of the glacier. This is as far as you can get without a guide. The walk is pretty boring, through a rocky valley, but the view of the glacier is still fantastic.
Kodak point, one of the highest points on our hike to go hiking on Fox Glacier. Our guide in the front, and the rest of our group on the left.
We passed through a fence (“Recommend to proceed only with a guide,”) and walked up through a wooded pass. Because of the changing nature of the glacier, the terminal face is far too dangerous to climb straight up. With the glacier moving at 3 ft/day, ice falls off constantly, and pieces can easily be the size of a house. Instead, we climbed about 600 stairs up the side of the accompanying mountain to the ice access point.
Here we put on our crampons and learned to use them. It’s surprisingly like walking regularly, except you need to kick forward as you step down to help get the spikes into the ice. They hold on really tightly, even in the hard ice that forms during the winter. (In the summer, some of the ice melts, making it much easier to dig your feet in.)
Kat in her crampons, provided by Fox Guides so we didn't slip and slide all over the ice.
We walked onto the ice just as the morning half-day group was leaving. We climbed up some stairs that they had precut in the ice (though they need to be reshaped daily due to melting and shifting ice). Within 5 minutes we had reached the top of the stairs; this is as far as the half-day group gets to go.
The beginning of the hike on Fox Glacier. If you look closely, you can see stairs cut into the ice by the guides.
We paused for a moment as our guide (Shaun) explained some of the geology. Apparently the upper section of the glacier gets more than 50 meters (150 feet) of snow each year. As this builds up, the weight gets too much and it compresses into ice. Each 50 meters of snow compresses to only one meter of ice. If the rate of ice buildup is faster than the rate of erosion, the glacier advances, as it has done over the past 18 months. Otherwise, if the erosion is quicker, the glacier reheats. Because of global warming, nearly every glacier in the world has retreated over the past 20 years. Only three areas have advancing glaciers: Peru, Iceland, and Western New Zealand.
We started down the face of the glacier, blazing our own path. In areas where the terrain was too tough for inexperienced people such as ourselves, Shaun would cut stairs in the ice with a few quick blows from his ice-pick.
Shaun had to stop a lot to cut steps for us in the ice with his pick.
We passed by some moulins, giant holes created by the melting ice turning into running water. We even passed a few “people-catchers,” moulins just big enough for a person. A person that falls down can easily be trapped and suffocate before a rescue team can get there. (These moulins are shaped sort of like a funnel. As the person falls down with a full breath, their chest is expanded and they get stuck. When they breathe out, however, their chest compresses again, letting them fall a bit further into the hole. Unfortunately, now they don’t have enough room to expand their chest to take another breath, thus the suffocation.)
Shaun, our guide, straddling one of the deep crevasses (so that we didn't fall in).
After a quick lunch, we were met by another guide, Jeff. Together, Shaun and Jeff took us down into some of the crevasses along the lower face. These huge cracks in the ice can be dangerous down on the terminal face, but are quite stable (at least for a few days) higher up where we were. We climbed through with 15-20 feet of ice on either side of us. It was quite impressive.
Taking a hike down into the crevasses near the terminal face of the glacier.
One of the most narrow points we had to climb through. It would have been really cool to climb down through that hole below, but it was always best to stick to the main path.
As we came to the front of the glacier, the sun popped out from behind the mountain, helping to heat up our frigid bodies. We lounged in the sun for a few minutes, trying to soak it up before it disappeared behind the mountains again.
The sun was out for a short amount of time. This is down lower on the glacier, getting near the terminal face. Notice how the ice is getting more and more rough. If you look closely, you can see Jeff, one of our tour guides, playing on a ridge. He was knocking big chunks of ice into a huge crevasse. Whether it was to prevent it from falling on others or if he was just having fun is hard to say.
Soon we took off again, back up the glacial face. We came across a tunnel just big enough to crawl through. (This was also formed by running water.) We climbed through and explored a little bit, and had to climb back out using a rope ladder.
Kat climbing down into the ice hole. There was a small cave in there off to the right, but the tunnel continued straight ahead to open back up to the surface.
There was also a much bigger tunnel. Apparently it was about 50 feet long a few months ago, but has since worn down quite a bit and is down to about 20 feet.
The bigger cave. It was just big enough for two people at a time. Notice how blue everything is from the color of the ice.
We finished up the hike by climbing up to the highest point of the day. While it was by no means the highest point on the glacier, it still gave spectacular views. (To reach the real highest point requires a helicopter.) We even saw a crew of guys practicing climbing on the ice, something we had considered doing ourselves instead of the hike.
Some ice climbers training with a technical school of some sort. Fox Guides also offered climbing on the ice, but they tended off towards other areas of the glacier.
Glacier climbing was absolutely phenomenal and has definitely been the highlight of my trip so far. I would highly recommend it to anyone to give it a go, especially if you’re keen for hiking and adventure. And if you’re ever coming down to New Zealand, give Fox Glacier a visit. It’s the best $150 NZ ($100 USD) you’ll ever spend, and it’ll give you the adventure of a lifetime.
See the full set on Flickr! (Photos will be uploaded as I go through each day.)
Day 8: Another Sunset
07 June, 2010
Happy Queen’s Birthday!
In honor of this British (and affiliate country) holiday, Katrina and I went out to breakfast. We chose Bob’s Weigh, a small café in downtown Queenstown recommended by my Fodor’s guidebook. I asked the cashier for his recommendation and ended up with a bacon, avocado, and spinach omelet with toast and homemade chutney (along with a flat white to drink). Kat had focaccia French toast with pure maple syrup and a berry sauce (and a mocha to drink). After we ordered, Kat turned to me and said, “That cashier totally checked you out.” …He was a guy. I guess that’s a compliment?
We ate breakfast at Bob's Weigh, a delicious eatery in Queenstown.
It was still rainy and cloudy, so we opted to skip the Sky Gondola and just walked around town instead. We ended up in The Remarkables Sweet Shop. I bought a dark chocolate crème filled mouse, and Kat got a coffee crème chocolate. The chocolate was ok, but the sample of tiramisu fudge that we tried was amazing.
Taken as we were walking around Queenstown.
We noticed this Segway tour as we were walking around the wharf.
(Taken by Kat)
Chocolates from The Remarkables Sweet Shop: a chocolate cream filled mouse and a coffee cream chocolate.
We left Queenstown (without a third Fergburger) and headed towards Wanaka. We took the same route that I took my last South Island trip, along Crown Range Road. This road starts out with crazy switchbacks that require you to go 15 kmh around the bends. This time, though, the mountains were completely covered with snow, and the side of the road was piled at least 6 inches deep. (That’s a lot in New Zealand.)
Wanaka was cute, and we got a few pictures of Lake Wanaka, but there wasn’t really much else there.
Kat standing in front of Lake Wanaka.
One of the few boats on Lake Wanaka. Being winter, it wasn't exactly prime boating season.
The drive to Fox Glacier was a long, but pretty one. The view across Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka were totally different with the snow covered mountains this time. Luckily, there wasn’t really any snow or ice on the roads, and we had no problems driving it.
We crossed a huge, one-lane bridge (with 2 passing bays) near Haast over the Haast River as the sun was setting. We ended up pulling into a parking lot, climbed down near the water, and witnessed one of the most brilliant sunsets to date. It’s tough to choose between this one and the one in Te Anau.
We stopped at this point on the Haast River for another one of the most beautiful sunsets I've seen in my life.
Prime Time
At the same place, while we were taking photos, we noticed that the wind started to pick up. It whipped across the water and created huge ripples. Suddenly, upriver from us, a 20-30 meter whirlwind formed, pulling up water and swirling it around in a mini-tornado. There were two, the first of which just narrowly missed Kat, and the second of which went straight for me. I was standing out on a sandbar, and cyclone created waves that gave me wet feet, but I was otherwise unscathed. (Unfortunately, I didn’t get a picture of them because I was too dumbfounded and worried about protecting my camera.)
The rest of the drive to Fox Glacier was in the dark, and there was nothing memorable for this reason. When we did get to Fox, though, we went to use the bathroom. Katrina went first, but came out running after just a few seconds. She said there were “50 bajillion spiders each 2 inches wide,” and refused to use it. (She ended up going at a bar instead.)
We cooked and ate dinner at Lake Matheson (just Satay chicken again) and are now parked on the side of the road, as usual. We’re supposed to hike the glacier tomorrow. It’s raining right now, but I really hope it dies down. Otherwise, tomorrow could be a long and uncomfortable day.
See the full set on Flickr! (Photos will be uploaded as I go through each day.)
Flickr
|
